UFC CEO Dana White got emotional when he recalled a story of him saving a young girl’s life.
White was on the In Search of Excellence Podcast and he was asked about the importance of philanthropy, due to the amount of money White has. He then gave an in-depth story of him saving a young girl’s life in Thailand a couple of years ago.
“I literally would stay off the internet — however many years ago this was — on the weekends, and for some reason, I ended up on the f*cking internet on a Saturday,” Dana White said. “There was this guy that had posted something that he had just got back from Thailand, and he was training Muay Thai over there with this legendary coach, and his daughter was dying because she needed some type of heart surgery, and she was going to die in the next several days if she didn’t get the money. And it was going to be $50,000.
“And the guy was like, ‘Dana White, you need to f*cking put this money up right now and donate it to her. You f*cking bet this much playing blackjack,’ … basically coming at me like that. The people on the thing were going, ‘Whoa, he can do whatever he wants with his money, why do you expect it [to happen]?’ But this is the way I talk. This guy was talking to me the way that I talk.”
“And he isn’t wrong. I was like, ‘This dude is f*cking absolutely right. He’s not wrong, he’s f*cking right. I’m supposed to do this. It was f*cking weird. “So I end up reaching out [to] find out if it’s real. It’s real. And I send the $50,000 over, and her and I … when you go into their gym, there’s this massive picture of me in there, and there’s big picture of me over her bed like I’m her guardian angel.”
The donation happened in 2010, and in 2018, Dana White went out and visited the young girl, whose life he saved.
Dana White continues to keep in touch with the girl
Although White had saved her life by paying for the surgery, the UFC CEO continues to help her out.
According to White, he says he is paying for her schooling and all her medical stuff, and he says he doesn’t like talking about helping people because he doesn’t want the pat on the back, instead, he helps people that he wants to help and when their stories connect to him.
“I pay for her schooling, I pay for all of her medical stuff,” Dana White said. “Anyway, I don’t like talking about a lot of this stuff, but I’m in a position that I’m very lucky that I can help other people, and I’m not one of these guys who likes walking out with a f*cking big check, and doing all that bullsh*t. I do stuff because I should do it, and I do stuff because I want to do it. I don’t do it because I want to be recognized doing it. But I don’t like talking about it.”